Author: Paul Tarussov

I found Apocalypse World in “Swords & Wizardry”.

What’s Swords and Wizardry? It’s one of the better OSR-style retroclones (in my opinion; but there are better ones).

And here is an excerpt:

Take note: Monsters do not always leap to the attack. Unless they are on the alert for intruders, the Referee may roll 2d6 to determine whether the monsters will attack if they surprise the adventurers. On a roll of 2-6, the monsters will be hostile and attack; on a roll of 7-9, the monsters will withhold judgment and wait to see if the adventurers are hostile; on a roll of 10-12, the monsters will have a positive initial reaction to seeing the adventurers, and might even be convinced to offer some help – if they are well paid, of course!

Sounds familiar, I thought! Cool.

The Bureau, a simple World of Dungeons hack for kids. 

Different die types, no addition or subtraction (beyond adding tow dice together). It’s kind of like Men in Black meets Ghostbusters.

If you try it, please let me know!

http://ihousenews.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/62455318/The%20Bureau.pdf

Help me with an overly-optimistic Hardholder!

Vincent Baker made an interesting post not too long ago about what kind of player chooses to be a hardholder (http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=5823“>link).

Well, sure enough, I now have one of those types. A serious and tough, but civilized and optimistic hardholder. He collects books about governance and laws, reads John Locke, and has taught himself how to play chess, but also isn’t afraid to shoot someone in the head if they try to do something he considers a problem in his society.

He looks with great interest at the “erase an option from your holding” improvement. He wants to improve the life of his people. His plan is to organize an outing to explore nearby lands and find other holds to trade with. Sure enough, he chose for his gang to be “well-disciplined”.

Enough said, right? You get it. He wants power so he can make everything better for everyone, build an efficient society under his rule.

Of course, I throw some bad news at him: he can’t have everything under control, there’s bad stuff going on. Of course, this frustrates him as a character (who wants to have everything under control). But it also frustrates him a bit as a player: looking at how the dice and the system works, he asks me, “How can this ever get better? It seems like we’ll just be spinning our wheels round and round.” 

He learns in this session that there are rumours going around the holding that “he will be replaced soon by a new hardholder”. He wants to know if this is “kosher”, asking me if, as MC, I’m allowed to put something like that into play even though he didn’t roll a miss on his Wealth roll. “Is my rule contested now? It sounds like it’s going to be. Can you do that without me missing this roll?”

I can tell he wants to settle things “at home” so he can set out to conquer new lands, explore new territory, and trade with other holdings.

[A partially-related question: how do you use the Wealth move when the hardholder is traveling outside the holding? Roll it each session, anyway? Never roll it? Roll it in secret, and tell the hardholder the outcome when he comes home? Roll it each time the hardholder comes back home?]

Now, just to make it clear:

This is not an “asking for help in desperation” kind of post. I’m having fun, the hardholder is having fun. If we stop having fun, that’s something to deal with at the social level.

But I’d love to hear if you have any clever thoughts on how I might handle this hardholder (and this player) as the MC of the game. I don’t particularly feel that I can stick to the principles (especially “make apocalypse world seem real”, and the fronts I have written up, never mind the Wealth move) and, at the same time, ignore or sweep the problems in the hardhold under the rug. But I also want to be a fan of the player character, and give him a chance to spread his wings and do some exploring, if that’s what he was hoping for with this game.

Suggest tips, tricks, moves, and/or fronts! I look forward to your thoughts.

How would you handle this, for maximum fun? How would you take advantage of this dynamic?

Does anyone have some good Apocalypse World custom moves for funky drugs, drug addiction, and withdrawal?

Please share!